they have the ability.

with the top stories of the week today this is the weekly. serious. hundreds of people on wednesday. following the. well it appears that the u.s. is no longer just using words to address the ongoing syrian crisis plans of possible military action are now being deliberated now despite the fact that the

unconfirmed reports made by the syrian rebels have not been verified president obama has called recent allegations of chemical weapons being used by the syrian government a big event of grave concern now white house official says that the u.s. has a range of options and that the obama administration is going to act very deliberately in making decisions consistent with u.s. national security interests and how washington can advance its objectives in syria meantime on friday the u.s. navy had repositioned ship armed with missiles in the mediterranean u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel said obama has already asked the pentagon for options are in syria according to c.b.s. news potential targets include command bunkers and launchers used to fire chemical weapons now up until this point the u.s. leader has been very cautious over intervening in syria previously saying quote the u.s. should be wary of being drawn into very expensive difficult costly interventions

that actually breed more resentment in the region unquote however one year ago obama also said that chemical weapons used in syria would be a red line for the united states and now he is under pressure growing pressure to act u.s. officials have acknowledged that there is no conclusive evidence linking syrian president bashar al assad to this week's alleged chemical attacks nonetheless a state department spokesperson has also said that washington doesn't believe the rebels are capable of carrying out a chemical attack so logically this would lead one to think that the white house has already found the syrian government guilty of the alleged chemical weapons being used in syria now the media has also played a significant role in recent days with many west. very sad and shocking video dead victims in syria reporting that the assumption is that the syrian government is behind the mass killings. and while the u.n.

inspectors have yet to determine whether chemicals have been used and who used them there's been no clarity over the number of casualties either inside. the professor of international lord's georgetown university says the results of the u.n. probe it could end up leaving the obama administration the red faced if it is going to turn out to be the rebels who are using the weapon. material the u.s. would be embarrassed because it could be allied of the u.s. opposition to do you are supporting claiming that these are people who are seeking democracy and rule of law and fighting corruption or whatever in syria and this is the purpose of the regime change the u.s. would like to to prove or would like some of its allies that it is the regime who has done this but this has not been independently proven very fired

and without any dependent very few cation i think if we would take all the what the u.s. president has said does not indicate that military action is imminent. of course i hear a nazi we've been closely following the latest escalation of the syrian crisis online you can log onto our three dot com for the latest updates and extensive analysis. now this week the british newspaper which spilled the beans on the n.s.a. and was interned for through two were destroyed materials provided by edward snowden came clean on why it gave into government pressure the guardian editor said london threatened legal action to stop the paper from reporting sensitive leaks so they agreed to destroy the original data which i've never the test already been copied. syria has details. you've had your fun now it's time to

return in the documents said the unnamed government official today newspaper editor it could be the stuff of movies it isn't we will face difficulty with ultimatum for the british government that if we didn't hand back the material or destroy it they would be moved to law in recent months the guardian newspaper has come to be known as the paper that's been exposing secret material from a trove of information passed on to wit by former contractor of the national security agency edward snowden but in recent days the editor of the newspaper is also publicized what had gone on a behind closed doors here how security officials had ended up in the basement of their offices overseeing the destruction of hard drives and computers which contained the very information the paper has been exposing a bizarre turn of events salary richards says that came all the way up from the prime minister's office once it was obvious that they would be going to law. i would rather destroy the copy than hand it back to them or allow the courts to

freeze our reporting and i was happy to destroy it because it was not going to inhibit our reporting we would simply. not from london the twenty first century possibility in a highly digital and connected world the revelation by rusbridger came just a day after that attention and david miranda part there of the guardian journalist glenn greenwald the journalist who had broken the story of snowden's leaks and the same materials miranda was detained under the u. case terrorism act and was held in question for nine hours at heathrow airport it caused an outcry among politicians and journalists and even david anderson the independent reviewer of terrorism laws who demanded an explanation prompting the u.k. home office to go on the offensive the government and the police have a duty to protect the public and our national security those who oppose this sort of action need to think about what they can do if they were. want to protect the public to tell the public what it is they're protecting them from

a generalized statement about terrorism in general doesn't really do the trick you've got to be able to say well the information he's got would endangered the public for the following reasons you've got to have reasons for it no such reasons have been advanced miranda's new tension as well as the destruction of computers and the guardian's basement has one of britain's most respected newspapers in the spotlight the story teller has become this story this is a very damaging moment actually for britain's reputation for free speech is being laid the way that the british state is very prepared to use terrorism legislation to use accusations of terrorism in order to shut down what looks to be journalistic practice good healthy investigative journalism with some of pointed to be noticeably lackluster response from the country's other newspapers following his revelations especially considering that press appears to be at stake the business of reporting securely and having competent full sources is becoming difficult in

these documents there is the stated ambition to scoop up everything and store it all to the internet this is the language that's being used internally to search celia r.t.e. london now the mantling of the guardian by london was designed to deter others from revealing sensitive data could embarrass the british government and its american allies and that's the view of investigative journalist tony cost. one by one the bravest the most outspoken but the people mean literally these are the public's eyes and ears they're being stopped they're being covered by the by the police in doing things like this let's remember what this is all about in the first place it's never lose sight of that what's been going on here by the n.s.a. q it's the biggest illegal fishing operation in history massive amounts of data of personal private data of individuals who are innocent have done nothing wrong with being illegally collected by these organizations and we need to know why who's done

that my personal opinion is the people behind it who authorized it should go to jail and we just heard about the chilling effect this is really important for the public to understand when something like this arrest of david miranda takes place the effect is that it actually discourages our newspapers and our the journalists from doing their work if we don't have healthy thriving newspapers and investigative journalism prepared to ask the difficult questions of our security services we're moving closer and closer towards a police state here in britain and it's not only journalists that are now getting their colors felt after edward snowden a very to the clutches of the american or thirty's after it was revealed the n.s.a. leaker had used a secure email service larva bid its owner was forced to shut down the company later levison says that he had to do it or else be forced by the u.s. government to spy on his customers and also explain to my colleagues. he didn't want to perpetrate what he also called

a crime against the american people. if i had continued to operate i felt like it would have put me in a ethically compromising position. in other words the service no longer would have been what i intended it to be which was a secure and private method of communication for americans so you posted a message on line saying that you were in an impossible situation that either you would quote do you hear become complicit in crimes against the american people or walk away from a decade of your hard work what do you think you would have faced if you didn't shut down the service when you say no to the government. they have the ability to take everything they have the ability to take your business take your money and take your freedom and there really isn't all that much you can do about it. so i was looking at the very real possibility of an impossible debt and

possibly being put in jail and still not being able to tell people why i was even in jail you wrote on the line that without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent that you would advise people users against trusting a company that has physical ties to the us why is that all of the major providers here in the u.s. . have provided. our government with real time access to the private information of their users and they don't really have a choice about it and they don't really have the ability to tell anybody about. oh so the fact is if you trust your data to a company even if they they haven't already been approached. and been required to provide access the simple fact is they could be in the future. are

a lot of news to come your way here on r t today including over a million brits face being left penniless despite having a job this is they are forced to work on the so-called zero hours contracts so without any promise of an income to explain how that's possible just a bit later in the program. also a record flooding is expected in russia's far eastern city of. this emergency crews work around the clock to beef up defenses of the report on not just around the corner for you know. but for the meantime here on r.t. convicted whistleblower bradley manning who past proof of u.s. war crimes to wiki leaks is now seeking a pardon from the u.s. president and manning was sentenced to thirty five years in jail this week for the biggest leak of military data in history and in a letter addressed to barack obama that was a blow or stressed he's a patriot who acted to protect the very liberties that americans hold dear for the mainstream media has launched a fresh smear campaign against him as artie's guy nature can reports. bradley

manning sentence of thirty five years behind bars has said unimpressive dennet punishments threshold for whistleblowers bradley manning should be walking the streets and being treated for who is a whistleblower who exposed war crimes in iraq afghanistan secret war in yemen and the utter corruption of the governments the us supported bradley manning supporters gathered outside the white house to call for the president to pardon the whistleblower the supporters of bradley manning say what's at stake here is not just men in the air but also the future of journalism and the public's right to be informed on the actions that their government is taking on their behalf manning's defense team has submitted a request for a pardon but there seems to be little chance that it will be granted that the government's ongoing crackdown on whistleblowers under the current administration an unauthorized leak to the media of classified information is viewed as being tantamount to aiding the enemy. the government wide crackdown on whistleblowers and

the extension of this crackdown to journalists threatens to stifle the flow of information that is vital to our public but the media in the us has largely failed to stand up for bradley manning government officials and t.v. pundits all but convicted the whistleblower even before any trial took place who cares whether the army killed some innocent people or not over in iraq you know we don't want to we don't want to be a part of that we it's very uncomfortable so if it's a complex issue and it's uncomfortable americans generally will pull back from it allows the media to fill that gap and portray bradley manning as a traitor manning's own personality has grabbed more headlines than the shoes that he uncovered and the day after sentencing many six became the main story who is healthy this week bradley manning announced that he wants to spend the rest of his life as a female and asked to be referred to as chelsea manning one of the defense

psychiatry at trial testified that manning has narcissistic tendencies and i wonder if there's anything to that in the sense that she's announcing this in this very big public way no i think this is really trying to let people have the answer that they wanted she never really wanted this to be public to begin with and when the information came out you need to understand the she gave it to her in a limo in a very private setting in a one on one chat never expecting this to be public now that it is unfortunately you have to deal with it in a public manner chelsea manning's attorney also said his client never wanted personal issues to become the main story and overshadow the debate that the whistleblower wanted to start through the leaks in washington i'm going to. let a peter tatchell is one of the activists who's been campaigning in support of bradley manning he says the end of the day the u.s. government has simply declared war on whistleblowers. it is quite extraordinary

that bradley manning has got thirty five years for telling the truth and exposing us war crimes lies and cover ups while the people who committed these criminal acts have walked away scot free they have never ever been prosecuted it is a notable fact that president obama has chased and prosecuted more whistle blows than even right wing republicans like richard nixon and ronald reagan that is a pretty damning indictment of president obama and his democratic administration whistleblowers are not criminals they are the canaries in the mine who warned us about danger they warned us about untruths about hidden reality that people in power don't want us to know whistleblowers are essential to the more you see. on air and online twenty four seventh's here's what we're covering right now dot

com for your coin friendly supporters of the controversial cyber currency gathering in berlin find out how it's all gone down so far. plus thousands take to the streets in bahrain demanding democratic reforms but we've got the footage plus a timeline of the ongoing protest just a click away right now at our. right to see. her story. and i think you're. on a reporter's. instagram. and . thanks for joining us here on our shared with you today a disastrous flooding in russia's far. has affected the livelihoods of more than

eighty five thousand people and the water levels keep on rising emergency crews are working around the clock to fortify the city of how bad off the worst hit area right now paul scott has been there for almost two weeks and far this report. like this is marina a resident of bolshoi risky island and this is marina's house water waist high the entire ground floor resembling a cesspit rather than a home now it's only when you enter the properties that you see the extent of the damage that these floodwaters have caused now despite knowing as best attempts to try to keep many of her treasured possessions out of the water it was simply in vain the entire house is completely submerged and it's clear looking around that's going to take a lot of time money and efforts before this place returns to normal marina is one of hundreds in this region to have been evacuated in recent days by russia's

emergency services she can't take everything with her and doesn't know when she'll be able to return for now she'll stay with friends. we've been crying all week we've lost all our property and that's after we've renovated hundred wallpaper place new carpets although some hardy souls remain predominantly this village is like a ghost town but despite the chaos there are resilient attempts to carry on as normal the shop remains open although when we visited business was slow. many of those evacuated from their homes and up in temporary accommodation centers in schools and sports holes or thirty's and volunteers providing supplies such as food drinking water and medicine it's some rest bite for those who have lost everything just get the policy it's good that aid is going to come there is good

they do have there but he needed to stay here they just patel tease greet the treat us like the children although the situation in the how about ask region remains critical further west there's hope the worst is over in the region attention is now turning to the cleanup operation just that the situation is changing and we're going to regroup our forces people now come from the neighboring a more region for planes arrive here every day. now water levels in some parts of this region have already beaten records that have stood for more than one hundred and twenty years that's of six hundred and forty two centimeters and the fear is that as the rains continue that could push the eight meter barrier causing even more devastation and destruction to people's lives and homes the military and emergency services continue to work around the clock to reinforce how about i ask concern the defenses could be breached by water that at the moment shows no signs of receding and with flood levels not expected to eight until mid september the

true extent of the damage is yet to reveal itself and it could be some time yet before the full picture emerges postcards. about ask. are you watching the weekly let's check out egypt for a moment here the former president hosni mubarak released from prison this thursday after an appeal against his detention it's seen by many in the nation as a rollback on the changes that flowed from the arab spring and mubarak still facing a retrial very worn charges of complicity in the killing of almost nine hundred protesters during the twenty year eleven uprising summer gyptian politicians are his release could escalate tensions even further and there's been nonstop protests and bloodshed in the country since july when the army toppled the country's first democratically elected president mohamed morsy and pro-democracy activist mohamed believes the interim military backed government is full of mubarak supporters and swept morsi aside to free their next boss from prison. comes

a tool no surprise that mubarak was released at the end of the day it was sisi and the military junta releasing the boss and it's the judges the corrupt judges are releasing the one person and the the head of the state the people who went out on the twenty fifth of january but you should talk to what we're seeing now is not only the return of the mubarak regime it's actually the return of head of the mubarak regime as well egyptians went out on the twenty fifth of january revolution we wanted a free country and we wanted the judiciary to actually be that that represents the people not the one that was appointed by mubarak it comes as no surprise the tool that those who oppose where appointed by mubarak are the ones that actually got him released from prison. into the antiwar dot there we go let's start with tunisia thousand people have rallied in the capital calling for the resignation of the islamist led government

a coalition of opposition parties staged massive protests demanding new elections be held the demonstrators say they're tired of the inability of authorities to maintain security and restart the economy there. giving on rest which erupted in july was sponsored by the assassination of a left wing opposition politician. to colombia where is the four who did least one person has been killed in antigovernment protests earlier this week the country's truckers and farmers held rallies against presidential reforms that they say their incomes and police used tear gas to disperse the crowds with rotting demonstrators throwing rocks and explosives in response this comes as colombia's largest guerrilla group of rebels walked away from peace talks with the government. now amid layoffs and welfare cuts a growing number of britons are being left in financial limbo by their employers more and more of the controversial tactic of zero hours contracts leaving this

stuff with the possibility of ending up penniless despite spending every waking hour at the job. as the story no. you have a job but you don't know when you'll work or if you'll be paid that's the reality for a million brits employed on zero hours contracts mike donald says admitted that it employs ninety percent of its u.k. workforce in this way stuff are expected to be ready for work in the mornings in case the summoned by their boss says they also have the right to refuse crucially though there's no guaranteed minimum set of working hours per week hence the zero in the title of this man in his twenty's is almost zero hours contract with a well known restaurant chain every morning he waits for the call telling him whether or not he'll have work really in charge as it were you working there to be able to say we're not to make that much profit this week so actually we're going to try and do stuff as we can you guys can all be cut and we'll just do on three stuff

this week is completely and for the government has promised to investigate the controversial employment amidst concerns that leaving an increasing number of brits in financial limbo with few rights low pay and no stability or no guarantee of other jobs or wasn't making enough money to pay the rent was falling behind as the number of zero hours contracts was short top during the recession some economists forecasts that employers will return to hiring workers on better terms when the economy recovers the trade unions buying it in recent months and years we have start to see a growth of contracts particularly amongst public sector workers no longer are these small groups of workers who are employed on temporary employment now in some sights is this type of abusive employed ship is becoming the norm macdonald sports direct dominoes and even buckingham palace zero hours employers they've been

accused of exploiting people desperate for any kind of work it's part of the race to drive down the terms and conditions the pay. of all working people i know fortunately big business is using the istari measures in the government economic crisis as an excuse to use these contracts but business representatives say that the financial crisis is forcing companies to use zero hours contracts so those people who criticize your hours contracts go to recognize the impact that that would have on unemployment levels if the contracts in the flexibility that. wasn't available to employers i don't think it would be acting is the kind of employment stabilizer we're seeing it work out but terms of these contracts may see the bosses but many of the young people on them say that while they're on zero hours they've got zero chance of any financial stability i think they're the wrong no i think they should so i think they should shouldn't be lasting strain than they are because it was it doesn't happen that you don't have many hours and you can sort of

expect that at some point you made to. london was a pleasure having you with us here on our team today i'm going to step aside now for katie and she unravels the week's top business news with venture capital. lead. dramas that's trying to be ignored. stories others to refuse

to notice. things to change the world right now. so picture of today's. from around the globe. look to me. you want to venture capital i'm katy perry obey but basically grace the state television went back on the top ten to still be weighed down by it why not say it was for the money at stake coming to moscow next week would be checking out what could be warring three of the guys in house investigational thomas these boys at the business desk and tell us all about what he's now.